The Michkov truthers keep denying it but I believe it 100%. It's confirmed publicly that he told Coyotes he didn't want to go there, and SJ fits a similar profile to the rumor he wanted to play in big hockey markets and not fringe market s like SJ. Clearly he liked PHI as it came out after the draft that he targeted them. Not sure what happened with MTL. Smith is at least somewhat understandable as a pick. Also Grier was super terse when asked about interviewing Michkov, "we talked to everybody we wanted to."
Had we drafted Michkov and not Smith, and he reported to us, we'd be in the market for a high end 2C this year and we'd be looking at Hagens, McQueen, Ryabkin, or Schaefer/Hensler. I think we'd probably be in a better place but I'm biased, I was hoping for Michkov at the draft at the time. Ah well. Hopeful Smith can develop into something powerful, but don't think he's at Michkov's level at the moment.